{"id":37183,"date":"2018-02-08T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T00:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=37183"},"modified":"2018-02-07T16:05:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T05:05:28","slug":"jaroslaw-kaczynskis-jewish-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/jaroslaw-kaczynskis-jewish-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski\u2019s Jewish question"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The Polish government has provoked yet another international crisis, this time by adopting a law that is ostensibly meant to combat the phrase \u2018Polish death camps\u2019. The law targets a geographical shorthand, sometimes used abroad, for the extermination camps that the Nazis established on Polish territory during World War II. But there is more to the move than that.<\/p>\n

When Poles talk about the Warsaw Ghetto, no one sees this as a problem. Similarly, no one who uses the phrase<\/a> \u2018Polish death camps\u2019\u2014including former US president Barack Obama and former FBI director James Comey\u2014does so out of ill will towards Poland. Such phrases can be found even in Polish schoolbooks, such as Zofia Na\u0142kowska\u2019s excellent book on the Holocaust, Medaliony. <\/em>Nevertheless, many Poles believe that people abroad are misled by this phrase.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Polish politicians have spoken out against \u2018Polish death camps\u2019, and the issue\u2019s appeal is not limited to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Indeed, the issue was first taken up by former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski<\/a>. But the new law does not mention death camps. It criminalises blaming Poles for any wrongdoing against other nations. While the law includes exemptions for scholarly publications and artistic works, it applies to journalistic writing, posing a threat to open public debate.<\/p>\n

The relevant wording of the legislation is worth citing:<\/p>\n

Whoever publicly and untruthfully assigns responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish Nation or the Polish State for Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich \u2026 or for other crimes constituting crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, or war crimes, or in some other way markedly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of these crimes is subject to a fine or imprisonment for up to three years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Israeli embassy in Waraw responded<\/a> with a sobering question: will Holocaust survivors giving testimony about their personal histories also be subject to criminal liability? And back in Jerusalem, the Knesset has threatened to adopt legislation that would classify diminishing the role of Poles who participated in the Holocaust as a crime. A draft bill has the support of 61 of the Israeli parliament\u2019s 120 members.<\/p>\n

Before Poland\u2019s Sejm and Senate adopted the law, the US State Department issued its sharpest statement<\/a> towards the country since 1989, warning of \u2018the repercussions this draft legislation, if enacted, could have on Poland\u2019s strategic interests and relationships\u2014including with the United States and Israel\u2019. Neighbouring Ukraine\u2019s former foreign minister was blunter<\/a>: \u2018Poland has ceased to be a strategic partner for Ukraine. Today, Poland is threatening to block our integration with Europe.\u2019<\/p>\n

Indeed, Poland is risking its relationship with its three most important allies\u2014the US, Germany and Ukraine\u2014which up until now have tolerated the antics of Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, Poland\u2019s de facto leader. Poland now faces the threat of isolation by the West and loss of international influence, leaving the country vulnerable to Vladimir Putin\u2019s revanchist Russia.<\/p>\n

Despite much of the Polish elite\u2019s evident horror at the law, Kaczy\u0144ski will not back away from it. To be clear, Kaczy\u0144ski, like his deceased twin brother, Lech, is not an anti-Semite. As president, Lech Kaczynski was an enemy of anti-Semitism in Poland and celebrated Hanukkah in a synagogue. In fact, until now, Poland\u2019s government was probably the most pro-Israel in Europe, reflected in its abstention from a recent United Nations General Assembly vote to condemn US president Donald Trump\u2019s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

But Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, whose populism was once held in check by his brother, shaped this new legislation in ways that are politically favorable to PiS, which he leads, by effectively taking centrist voters hostage. The legislation does not offend such voters because the idea of banning the phrase \u2018Polish death camps\u2019 seems benign.<\/p>\n

At the same time, having expelled the most radical right-wing politicians from the government (Foreign Affairs Minister Witold Waszczykowski, Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, and Minister of the Environment Jan Szyszko), Kaczy\u0144ski needs to regain the trust of far-right PiS voters. They will be pleased that Poland is standing up to Israel, Ukraine and, indeed, the entire world.<\/p>\n

The PiS\u2019s cynical approach is revealed by the fact that even its leading members acknowledge Poles\u2019 role in the persecution of Jews. About a month ago, Ryszard Czarnecki, a PiS member and vice president of the European Parliament, compared an MEP from the opposition Civic Platform (PO) to a szmalcownik<\/em>, a pejorative term for those who blackmailed Jews who were hiding from the Nazis or those who protected them.<\/p>\n

Never mind that the heads of four European Parliament groupings responded by calling for Czarnecki\u2019s removal from his post, or that Poland\u2019s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, defended Czarnecki. In condemning szmalcownik<\/em>s, was Czarnecki not admitting that in addition to Poles who saved Jewish lives, there were Poles who sent them to their deaths, as Polish historians like Jan Gross<\/a>, Irena Grudzi\u0144ska, Barbara Engelking, Jan Grabowski, Jacek Leociak, Dariusz Stola and others have thoroughly documented?<\/p>\n

And now, a month after a senior PiS official advertised the existence of such Poles, the party has raised the profile of the phrase \u2018Polish death camps\u2019 in a botched attempt to suppress it. As former prime minister Donald Tusk commented<\/a> on Twitter: \u2018Whoever spreads the false phrase \u201cPolish death camps\u201d is harming Poland\u2019s good name and its interests. The authors of this legislation have promoted this vile slander on the world stage more effectively than ever before.\u2019<\/p>\n

The ugly fact is that the new law was promulgated on the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and just before the 50th anniversary of the Polish communist government\u2019s anti-Semitic campaign of 1968, which resulted in an exodus of 20,000 Poles, depriving the country of some of its brightest minds. So far, there is one jarring similarity between these two events: both gave Poland a black eye while stoking nationalist fervor among the \u2018patriotic electorate\u2019. One hopes that this is where the similarities end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Polish government has provoked yet another international crisis, this time by adopting a law that is ostensibly meant to combat the phrase \u2018Polish death camps\u2019. 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